oard.

The mate went a little way down the cabin stairs, but he couldn't go all
the way down because the cabin was full of water that washed to and fro
as the hulk rolled in the ocean. And nobody was there. And the mate
looked everywhere that he could go, and he found nobody. He couldn't
look into the cook's galley, because the galley had been washed
overboard; but he looked into the forecastle, and that had water in
it, too, washing to and fro over the floor. But he saw that the clothes
of the sailors were all gone except one thing which was washing about in
the water on the floor, that looked as if it had been there a long
time, and he couldn't make out what it was.

So he went back to the stern and asked the sailors if they could make
out the name or the port of the ship on the stern; for every ship has
its name and the name of the city where it belongs painted on the stern.
And the sailors said that there wasn't enough of the name left to tell
what it was, but it seemed to be a French name. So the mate went back
and he put three piles of oakum, one up in the bow, and one in the
stern, and one half way between the two. And he soaked the oakum with
oil and he poured oil on everything that was dry, and he set fire from
the lantern which he carried. Then he hurried to get off and into the
boat, and the sailors cast off. And, before they got off, the mate saw
that there was seaweed high up on the hulk, which showed that she had
drifted about, as she was, for a long time. And the fire blazed up, and
they hurried to get away from the wreck.

[Illustration]

The fire blazed up, higher and higher, as the boat went back to the
_Industry_, so that it was roaring by the time the sailors climbed
aboard. And they hoisted the boat up, and put it in its place, and
Captain Solomon had the sailors change the sails so that the ship would
go ahead on her course. And the mate was on the quarter deck, telling
Captain Solomon what he had seen. When the mate had got through Captain
Solomon thought for a long time.

"That's the Frenchman that was abandoned off Hatteras more'n a year
ago," said Captain Solomon at last. "They thought she was sinking. She
must have been carried by the currents up towards Norway, maybe, and
then down past the west coast of France and Spain. I've heard of
derelicts doing that, but I've never seen it before."

And the mate didn't say anything, but they watched the wreck burning. It
burned fiercely, but the